Simple Website Localization Tips That Will Attract Foreign Markets

Localize Your Website to Benefit Foreign Markets with these Easy Tips

One of the benefits of running an e-commerce website is the fact that your goods and/or services are not limited to your country of origin, but that you can attract markets from practically all over the world. It is precisely the fact that your products are not limited to one location.

The important thing to note is that while English is the most widely spoken language, there are other markets that may not be familiar with the language hence the need to include other languages as well.

For your potential target audience understand what service or product you are selling, they need to be conversant with the language your website is using. For this reason, you might want to make sure that your website accommodates some of the widely spoken languages in the world such as Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Hindustani, Arabic, Russian, French and so on.

Read on to find out critical ways to properly localize your website.

Identify Your Marketplace

This is ideally the first step to proper localization of your website. It is imperative to identify whom you intend to sell your products before you can localize your website. Across the globe, people speak different languages; they have varied cultural inclinations as well as social norms.

It is only after identifying your target market that you can adopt your website to speak to them in terms of their language, in a manner that is acceptable to them both socially and culturally. You need to invest in research, including competitor research so that you are able to create a proper profile of your target market. The profile should also include the products that the target market will be interested in.

It is noteworthy that some of the largest e-commerce markets in the world such as Alibaba, Amazon, eBay, and Rakuten are doing so great in terms of reaching foreign markets because they invested in customer research. Regardless of the size of your e-commerce, research about your market is paramount.

Seek the Services of a Website Translation Company

Translating your content to match all the languages of your potential customers is not something that you should consider doing, but a critical necessity when it comes to website localization. Despite the fact that English is the most commonly used language online, you need to make sure that your website incorporates as many languages as possible.

If you want to target the Americans, aside from English, you will need to make sure that your content is available in languages such as Portuguese and Spanish which are widely spoken in both South and North America. On the other hand, if your target market is Europeans mostly, you will consider Russian, German as well as French. The idea is to use the language of your market because it will give you an edge over your competitors.

However, you should not settle for just about any translation company, but one that provides top-notch translations that incorporate the cultural nuances of your target market. Such a company is Translate, which has been tried and tested website translator. Aside from translating the languages, it will also provide you with services such as:

• Website localizator
• Chat translation systems
• Support tickets;
• CMS plug-ins that support specific services such as Joomla, WordPress as well as Magento.

Adopt Your Website to be Country Specific

Website localization is all about language and culture. The culture of any given country will influence how they perceive your products. Moreover, the mere fact that you included those products among others may prevent them from buying all your goods. In such a scenario, you will need to make goods that they might dislike unavailable on your website as far as that country is concerned.

While a single country may have more than one culture and language, there is always an aspect of generalization or standardization. It is practically impossible to make sure that your website addresses all the languages and cultures in the world. This is actually the biggest challenge that most e-commerce operators have; you cannot incorporate the needs of everybody. To solve this problem, you need to create the one size fits all concept, where you try to make sure you localize your website to meet the requirements of the majority in any given country.

Keep a Keen Eye When Selecting Goods for Sale

Achieving this goal will be very easy once you have identified your market, their requirements. Needless to say, a particular group of individuals will find some products useful while others might find the same products useless. For instance, individuals living in countries whose majority religion is Islam will find pork products useless and will not buy. Similarly, warm clothes will not be bought by individuals living in cold areas such as Iceland in the same way that individuals who cannot access the ocean or sea will find surfing products useless. As such, you need to avail the products on your website for a specific market are appropriate for that market.

Website localization is a must for any e-commerce operator. If your target customers cannot understand what you are selling, or if your products or the manner in which you are selling them offends their culture, they will not buy your products. It is for this reason that you must always ensure that your website speaks directly to your target market in terms of language and culture.

Website localization not only eliminates miscommunication with your customers, but it also ensures that your products are selling and that you have a competitive edge. Notably, instead of localizing your website in terms of language and culture, you could also localize your content to meet other customer and country specific aspects such as time, units of measure as well as currency.

Notably, for all your localization needs, you should consider using the services of Translate.com as they will provide you with professionally translated website content.